KEY DATES OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE

1570: Welsh astronomer, mathematician, and alchemist John Dee coins the term British Empire
1583: English explorer and nobleman Humphrey Gilbert establishes a settlement in Newfoundland
1585: English explorer and statesman Sir Walter Raleigh, Humphrey Gilbert’s step-brother, founds a colony on Roanoke Island, Virginia
1607: Jamestown, England’s first permanent North American settlement, is founded in Virginia
1620: The Puritan Pilgrims establish Plymouth Colony in present day Massachusetts
1620s: English colonization of the Caribbean commences with the settlement of Saint Kitts and Barbados
1626: Salem, Massachusetts, is established
1629: The Massachusetts Bay Company—a British enterprise that establishes the Massachusetts Bay Colony at present day Boston—is formed
1655: Britain takes Jamaica from Spain
1664: England seizes New Amsterdam from the Dutch and renames it New York
1681: William Penn secures a royal charter and establishes Pennsylvania
1713: The Treaty of Utrecht results in British takeover of Acadia (a region in eastern Canada) and Newfoundland
1765: The Stamp Act prompts colonial demonstrations and an import embargo of British goods
1773: The Tea Act culminates in the so-called Boston Tea Party
1776: Thirteen American colonies declare their independence
1783: The Treaty of Paris results in Britain’s acknowledgement of American independence and the end of the so-called First British Empire
1788: British colonization of Australia begins with the establishment of Sydney in New South Wales
1791: The separate provinces of Upper Canada and Lower Canada are established
1796: Britain takes Ceylon (Sri Lanka) from the Dutch
1806: British forces overtake the Dutch Cape Colony in South Africa
1840: New Zealand comes under British authority with the Treaty of Waitangi
1840: The two Canadas are reunited in the Act of Union
1842: Hong Kong falls to Britain with the Treaty of Nanjing
1858: The British Crown assumes direct control over India
1867: The British North America Act creates the Canadian Confederation
1870s: The era of ‘‘new imperialism’’ begins, leading to formal British control over wide parts of Africa, as well as imperial expansion in Asia and the Pacific
1876: Queen Victoria is proclaimed empress of India
1885: Britain occupies Burma
1918: Following World War I the British Empire reaches its greatest extent, but struggles to maintain control over its vast territories
1931: The Statute of Westminster and the Commonwealth of Nations give Britain’s white settler dominions full sovereignty or authority over their own affairs
1945: Post-World War II decolonization begins and continues through the 1960s, bringing gradual independence for most of Britain’s overseas territories
1947: India achieves independence, eventually leading to the partition of British India into Muslim Pakistan and Hindu India
1948: Ceylon and Burma achieve independence
1950s: African decolonization commences late in the decade
1961-1983: British colonies in the West Indies achieve independence
1997: Some consider the return of Hong Kong to China as the end of the British Empire
2006: A number of overseas territories remain under British control, including Anguilla, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, and the Falkland Islands.

In the book 'Encyclopedia of Western Colonialism since 1450' Thomas Benjamin, editor in chief, Thomsom Gale, Farmington Hills,U.S.A, 2007. p. 361. Digitized, adapted and illustrated to be posted  by Leopoldo Costa.